Acute shortage of recruits?

Now even "Putin's cook" is said to be actively promoting "murderers and robbers".

Created: 08/09/2022 05:32

By: Franziska Schwarz

Also known as "Putin's Chef": Yevgeny Prigozhin (archive image from 2016) © ITAR-TASS/Imago

According to observers, Yevgeny Prigozhin became so economically successful because Vladimir Putin favored him.

He is also said to have close ties to the Wagner mercenary group.

Munich - Why Yevgeny Prigozhin's nickname is "Putin's cook" is quickly explained: He is said to have met the Kremlin boss in one of his restaurants.

Much more important in the Ukraine war: The 61-year-old is on the EU sanctions list because they believe he is an important donor and the unofficial head of the Wagner mercenary group - and he is now supposed to recruit its members himself in prison camps. 

This is reported by the independent Russian-language website 

.

"It seems that Yevgeny Prigozhin is personally recruiting mercenaries in the colonies," it said on August 6.

A prisoner told the portal that Prigozhin was "interested first and foremost in murderers and robbers" and was skeptical about recruiting drug addicts or rapists. 

The Russian mercenary group Wagner is increasingly filling the gaps in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

This is how the British secret service assessed it in July.

The Wagner fighters played a central role in recent skirmishes in Ukraine.

Putin's recruits - poor training as a risk factor for the Ukraine war?

However, the secret service agents also assume that the mercenary force had to accept heavy losses.

This leads to lower recruitment standards for new combatants, including convicted criminals and previously rejected applicants.

These new recruits would only receive very limited training, which would likely reduce the force's effectiveness and thus its value as a support for the Russian military.

According to the British experts, tensions between mercenaries and regular military units could lead to the fact that Prigozhin received the award as "Hero of the Russian Federation" for the deployment of the troops in the Luhansk region.

"This comes at a time when a number of very senior commanders are being replaced," they wrote in their regular Ukraine War Update.

The morale of the Russian troops could be negatively affected.

Putin friend sues against EU sanctions - first verdict made

However, on June 1, the General Court of the European Union dismissed a lawsuit brought by Prigozhin.

After a verdict, the judges did not consider it proven that the punitive measures against Vladimir Putin's confidante were insufficiently justified and based on inadmissible evidence.

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Prigozhin has been accused of violating the UN arms embargo on Libya since 2020.

Since April 2022 he has also been subject to EU sanctions because of the Ukraine war.

According to dpa information, Prigozhin received lucrative contracts for school meals and kindergartens from the Russian state.

A troll factory in St. Petersburg, which deliberately spreads fake news on the Internet, is also associated with him.